Stranded In The Southland

Thursday, June 30, 2005

Tortilla -- More Time in the Kitchen

After salmorejo, my next favorite Spanish dish was tortilla. Of course, the Latin American tortilla is a big round corn pancake, but the Spanish tortilla is a big round egg and potato omlette. I'd had plenty of it at various tapas restaurants in the US, but I love it so much I could eat nothing but tortilla, every day.

I started in to cook it with some trepidation, as it involves filling a frying pan with oil to cook the potatoes. In my minds eye, I could imagine M. coming back from her travels abroad, only to find that I'd managed to burn down the entire house with my lame cooking fu.

To my surprise, the oil didn't splatter much at all, and the whole thing went just swimmingly. The two recipes I used suggested six or three eggs; I found that six eggs were required to cover the potatoes; other than that, it went entirely according to the recipe.

I now have a great big tortilla in the refridgerator, which I'm making rapid progress on. I can't imagine that it is very good for me to eat all those potatoes and eggs, but it sure tastes great!